Fatal Frost

When the marshal agency that is supposed to keep others safe has one of their own in jeopardy, they will stop at nothing to protect each other.

Mercy Brennan’s father might have been a law enforcement officer, just like her, but that is where the similarities end. She is a U.S. Marshal in St. Louis, Missouri and has been working with a joint task force that has put her back in touch with her father. He left her and her family when she was young and she still hasn’t forgiven him for the pain and hardship he caused them. He has been trying to work his way back into her life and she isn’t sure she can trust him. They both are fighting some of the most powerful gangs in the city and unbeknownst to Mercy, her father has incriminating evidence against some of these gang members. The gangs believe he hands this evidence off to Mercy and they come after her. Her boss assigns her to work with Mark St. Laurent, another Marshal who happens to be her ex-boyfriend. Mercy doesn’t know of the danger she is in and feels she is being treated unfairly, especially when she finds out the lengths her boss and Mark have gone to keep her out of the loop. As they leave town in order to stay safe, they are met with a freak ice storm that strands them in a remote location not knowing who they can trust. With the storm worsening and enemies drawing closer, can they make it out alive?

Writing a romantic suspense can be difficult. Depending on what the reader wants, you can easily have too much of one aspect or the other. Luckily, Mehl did a very nice job of keeping the suspense up and not letting the romance over power the story. This may be my favorite Nancy Mehl book so far. Mercy was a strong character even though she had some tough obstacles to overcome. Mark and Tally where good characters to pair with Mercy. There were a lot of characters to follow, especially when the gang members were added to the mix which made it hard to connect and keep up at times. I’m glad that this is the first in a new series. So many of these characters have potential to grow and I am curious as to who the next book will explore. I think the one thing I had a problem with was the pacing. So many of the pages were bogged down with the narrative tied in with the dialogue making it read much slower. If it had been spaced out with more dialogue and less narrative I think it could have been an even faster read than it was. With that being said I still read it quickly and enjoyed the story. Even though it is dealing with gangs and violence, there isn’t much that would make it unsuitable or need any warnings for readers.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within are my own.